Cinderella Honors Ralph Gillum's Retirement With a Stellar Run
By Larry Lee, BraceBeagling Editor
February 18, 2003

The following article was written and sent to my good friend and partner, Ralph Gillum on the day he retired as a school guidance counselor on June 10, 1999. I thought during these long winter days you might enjoy reading it so I thought I would share it with you.

Cinderella Honors Ralph Gillum's Retirement

This afternoon the Gillum-Courtyard hounds at the Lee Kennel, by their barking, unanimously selected Gillum’s Courtyard Cinderella to run one for the ‘Gipper’ (Ralph Gillum) in honor of his retirement today as a guidance councilor at the Smart Middle School in Walled Lake, Michigan. The objective would be to track a rabbit perfectly for 20 minutes.

I loaded Cinderella into an airline crate in the back of my S-10 pickup and headed for what I call the public training grounds. (80 acres of wetlands about two miles from my kennel)

Cinderella appeared to be very humble as she took to the field in preparation for the great event. She hung her head and seemed to announce that she would search out and find her own rabbit and run it perfectly to honor Ralph’s retirement. This would be quite a challenge as the humidity was very high and the temperature hovered around 91 degrees. However, with the greatest of confidence she eased her slender body into the high weeds in search of a rabbit.

She searched diligently, checking the area surrounding us as I slowly, yet methodically beat the brush in search of a wily cottontail. Both of us eased into the tall swamp grass, stopping intermittently in order to spook Mister Cottontail into moving.

After about a half hour of searching we approached the creek bank that borders the dry and barren streambed that opens into the swamp that we had just searched. Cinderella stepped forward just as she had many times before and by her tail action announced that this was the spot. She moved effortlessly down the creek bank and dipped her head into the grass and immediately opened with her wonderful sounding chop mouth directly in the first jump. She seemed to genuflect her beautiful straight front legs before moving to the next track as if to say, “This run is in honor of ‘The Gipper’ Gillum.”

She eased the rabbit off the streambed to its far side and turned sharply to the right and tracked the rabbit perfectly for the next 30 feet or so. At that point in the run the rabbit had turned sharply to enter and cross the barren streambed again as if to say, “I am going to foil this perfect run.” Cinderella followed its trail and marked each jump perfectly, easing the rabbit up and along the opposite side of the creek bed. She turned the rabbit and moved it effortlessly for another 30 or 40 feet without making the slightest mistake.

At this point in the run it appeared the rabbit was leaving the creek bank to enter the weeds on the far side of the creek. Cinderella tapped the point but didn’t move. This could be a place where a serious mistake could be made and thus ruin the perfect run.

With her feet completely still she read the track again and slowly moved to the left as she claimed the next jump without making a mistake. Cinderella had read the jump perfectly. She tracked the rabbit across the bottom of the streambed again, up the far side of the bank and into the tall weeds. She never missed a hitch.

It was a piece of cake for her now as the rabbit moved straight through the high weeds. She claimed every track perfectly through this stretch of terrain. Then the feared Community Path appeared ahead. This path, where the neighbors in the nearby subdivision walked daily, had laid claim to ending many a perfect run and Cinderella seemed to sense that fact. However, with the apparent thought of ‘The Gipper’ in her mind she crossed the path without making a mistake.

As she entered the weeds on the far side of the path a log appeared ahead. The rabbit had run down the entire length of a four or five foot log in its effort to lose Cinderella. Would this end the fine effort she was putting forth for ‘The Gipper’? Not on this day! Cinderella neatly feathered three or four jumps down the log and followed the rabbit perfectly marking each track. She cautiously marked the next jump the rabbit had made after it left the log that was about three feet out into the grass.

That was enough for me. I was delighted by her performance. I told Cinderella she had accomplished what she had set out to do. I quickly snapped the leash on her collar while stroking her gently under her ears and chin.

As I peered into her beautiful half shut eyes that were glimmering in the sun she seemed to say, “That one was for the ‘Gipper’. Cinderella had executed a perfect 20-minute run in extreme heat and over hazardous terrain in honor of Ralph Gillum’s retirement. It was providential.